4543 18039 2 PB

European Journal of English Language Teaching
ISSN: 2501-7136
ISSN-L: 2501-7136
Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu
DOI: 10.46827/ejel.v7i6.4543 Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022
DIFFICULTIES WITH WORD CHOICE IN ACADEMIC WRITING

AND SOLUTIONS: A RESEARCH ON ENGLISH-MAJORED
STUDENTS AT CAN THO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM
Nguyen Thi Tuong Thuy,

Huynh Pham Thien Anh,
Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan,
Nguyen To Tuong Vy,
Nguyen Thi Viet Anhi
School of Foreign Languages,
Can Tho University,
Vietnam
Abstract:
Writing, especially academic writing, is highly valued in foreign language acquisition,
particularly for English majors. Nevertheless, using academic terminology might be
difficult for students still developing their academic language abilities. The purpose of
this research is to understand students' difficulties in selecting appropriate words in
academic writing and offer solutions to overcome such difficulties. The participants were
78 English majors (high-quality program, course 45) and three lecturers at the
Department of English Language and Culture, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho
University. Questionnaires were used to measure their difficulties in word choice in
academic writing and semi-structured interviews were utilized to find solutions. The
results show that most participants had a basic knowledge of academic vocabulary,
which was demonstrated through their ability to select the appropriate word choice.
However, students found it difficult to choose the right words in their academic writing.
The reasons are that academic words are not easy to remember and not successfully used
in the context of the meaning of the word and do not have an effective method of learning
academic vocabulary. Based on the results, several specific approaches have been
proposed to help students find the most suitable strategies for learning and using
academic vocabulary for their writing.
Keywords: academic writing, word choice, difficulties, solutions
i
Correspondence: email nbhuan@ctu.edu.vn
Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. 54

Nguyen Thi Tuong Thuy, Huynh Pham Thien Anh,
Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan, Nguyen To Tuong Vy, Nguyen Thi Viet Anh
DIFFICULTIES WITH WORD CHOICE IN ACADEMIC WRITING AND SOLUTIONS:
A RESEARCH ON ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT CAN THO UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM
1. Introduction
Writing is challenging to teach and learn in ESL/EFL. As mentioned by Grami (2010),

writing is a difficult skill to master or teach because it is a complex psychological creation
that involves "careful thinking, discipline, and focus". Furthermore, because academic
writing is a tough skill, particularly in a second or foreign language, challenges in
academic writing should be taken into account. From the perspective of Fadda (2012),
academic writing is linked with thinking or conscious mental processes since it is a
consequence of a student's portion that allows him or her to think, experience emotions,
and comprehend things. Furthermore, EFL learners in various locations may face a lot of
challenges when it comes to academic writing. According to Casanave and Hubbard and
Rabab'ah, Asian students are assumed to face problems in academic writing and struggle
to become acquainted with English academic writing. Students' vocabulary knowledge
and lexical competence are vital for academic language development, and the application
of academic vocabulary is an important aspect of academic linguistic ability. Adolescent
writers are required to know and utilize academic language successfully as school
activities get increasingly complicated throughout middle and high school to be
successful school (Nagy & Townsend, 2012). Nevertheless, efficient use of sophisticated,
academic terminology might be especially difficult for teenage L2 writers who are still
learning the language. To participate in academic discourse, learners must have a large
and complicated vocabulary as well as a thorough understanding of the academic
register. As a result, both the breadth and depth of students' academic vocabulary are
important components that contribute to the quality of their academic writing. Santos
(1988) discovered that lexical weakness is a linguistic component that "impinges directly
on content" (p. 84). Although several factors influence the overall quality of a written text
in academic discourse, the common view is that the "lexicon is a major component in both
the development and interpretation of meaningful literature" (Engber, 1995). This study,
therefore, aims to find out about the understanding, cognitive ability, difficulties, and
solutions in word choice in academic writing of English majors students (high-quality
program, course 45) at the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) in Can Tho University
(CTU). This study is designed in an attempt to address the following questions:
• What difficulties do students in the high-quality English course 45 (SFL) have with
word choice in writing academic papers?
• How can these students improve their word choice in academic writing?
2. Literature review
2.1 Features of academic writing

Writing is the most challenging of the four skills for students to develop. Writing is
difficult to learn because the writer must engage in a process that includes planning,
arranging, and editing to communicate meaning in words or phrases. To be understood,
European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 55

writing involves the capacity to organize and combine information into cohesive and
logical paragraphs and phrases. Academic writing is rule-governed with numerous rules
in grammar, vocabulary, formal format, and purpose. Therefore, to have a good product
in written form, learners must take time to remember these rules to complete writing
tasks suited to the appropriate standards.
2.2 Academic writing classification

Although there are myriad types of academic writing namely descriptive, analytical,
persuasive, and critical essays, the main kind of academic writing targeted in this
research is the essay, which is the most popular in universities. Also, essays are easy to
gather in large numbers from a variety of writers (from the first to fourth academic year)
in the university environment. Therefore, the more data this research receives, the more
accurate the result is. Academic writing is not easy work because it requires learners to
follow myriad rules. There are some common errors in academic English writing in terms
of grammatical-lexical errors, first language interference and writing organization,
syntactic errors, lexical errors, semantic errors, and the use of words and structures. In
addition, collocation is one of the most common faults that frequently happens in
learners’ writing.
2.3 Difficulties with word choice

It is well-acknowledged that vocabulary plays a crucial role in ESL writing. In Laufer and
Nation's research (1995), a learner's vocabulary size may be seen in their effective
language usage, such as writing. As reported by Nation (2001), L2 learners' academic
written writing may receive higher scores if their academic vocabulary grows. Similarly,
teachers' assessments of the work of non-native speaker students reveal that lexical
mistakes are the most significant issue (Santos, 1988). Therefore, increasing academic
vocabulary should help writers become better writers. In agreement with Zhou (2009),
the main issue with my vocabulary is descriptive terms. Word choice was another
difficulty for students (19% of comments on vocabulary improvement were made in this
area). They admitted having trouble deciding which term to use in a certain situation.
Additionally, students struggled to identify and rectify these mistakes without the help
of professors or native English speakers.
The use of language aspects or abilities in writing, such as punctuation, spelling,
grammar, vocabulary, and other areas, is the fundamental factor that makes writing
difficult. Pratiwi (2016) says that the pupils' struggles with writing in English may be
caused by a lack of ideas, written tasks, and written vocabulary. Sulasti (2003) confirms
that students’ main issues with writing are how to write, what to write, a lack of
vocabulary terms, and poor structure. A study by Zhou (2009) also found that the pupils'
most difficult part was language use and vocabulary and there were still fundamental
problems in their creation in terms of language use, such as organization, tense, quantity,
word order/of fragments, deletion, and meaning that was unclear or concealed. In terms

of vocabulary, the pupils' writings continue to have a limited range of words, frequent
errors in word choice, and meaning confusion. Al-Khasawneh and Maher (2010) express
that the participants in their survey stated that their biggest issues include grammatical
mistakes, poor vocabulary selection, irregular verbs, and inaccurate punctuation and
spelling. A student might make the mistake of failing to use the right words, spell words
correctly, use proper semantics, or even choose the right form of the term.
In a study by Kao (2020), L2 writing teachers were less likely to offer direct
feedback for word choice mistakes in the online writing platform, and numerous errors
were mislabeled as word choice faults. This might be because writing teachers are
constantly confronted with many forms of errors produced by poorly planned writing
activities and do not have enough time to investigate what specific types of errors have
occurred. Norris (2014) conducts research and shows that overusing synonyms in
academic writing will make readers feel uncomfortable and confused. Using synonyms
out of context affects the article’s tone, accuracy, and message. It signifies that writing
involves the capacity to organize and combine information into cohesive and logical
paragraphs and sentences to be intelligible.
2.4 Methods to help students with word choice

A study by Pratiwi (2016) indicates students’ challenges in writing English related to
language use. It indicates that students needed to increase their capacity to select the
language relevant to their writing topic. Students struggled with their vocabulary; thus,
they should practice writing in English to improve their vocabulary. Students should pay
close attention to the tense, vocabulary, and punctuation. Brun-Mercer and Zimmerman
(2015) find that encouraging students to use a learner's dictionary ensures that a term is
acceptable for the target genre. One of the dictionaries that list academic terms and
indicate the register (formal/slang/technical, etc.) is the Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary.
According to Basma (2013), the issue of learning writing skills gets more and more
attention in university education programs. Because writing is such an important skill to
prepare students for their future careers, students must communicate ideas and
information. A study conducted by Basma (2013) showed the significance of word choice
in academic writing and recommended a strategy for teaching students to increase their
vocabulary and their capacity to select words relevant to their writing.
3. Methodology
3.1 Design
The present study used a mixed-method design to investigate students' difficulties when
choosing words and offer solutions to help students at Can Tho University know how to
choose words better when writing academically. The research process for this study
focuses on quantitative and qualitative data collection.

3.2 Participants
The data was gathered at SFL, CTU in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The participants were
78 English major students (a high-quality program course 45) at SFL, CTU who have
taken a writing academic course. Three teacher participants who have taught academic
writing get involved in interviews to find out about the challenge and offer solutions to
help students overcome challenges of word choice in academic writing.
3.3 Instruments
3.3.1 Questionnaires
The 25-item questionnaire consisted of five main sections: participants' background,
participants' perceptions of word choice, participants' evaluation of difficulties in word
choice when academic writing, participants' chosen words, and participants' solutions to
choosing the right word for academic writing. Additionally, a set of multiple-choice
questions were added to the survey to gauge students' word choice issues and investigate
solutions that could be accessible. The questionnaire was used to collect data from
English majors in SFL at CTU.
3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews

Three teachers were invited for the semi-structured interviews to share more in-depth
ideas of the challenges and solutions in word choice in academic writing. Interviews were
conducted and recorded. Before the interviews, the researchers explained the reason and
purpose and asked for permission from the participants to record the interviews. After
that, the teachers were asked five questions in an interview to help researchers
understand more about the difficulties that they face in teaching academic writing to their
students and solutions to help students overcome these difficulties. As mentioned earlier,
the results of the interviews with the teachers were more accurate in describing the
difficulties that students faced when writing academic writing solutions. This
understanding would aid students in identifying these problems and developing
learning strategies to achieve better academic writing.
4. Findings
4.1 Findings from the questionnaires

4.1.1 Student’s perceptions of word choice
According to Chart 1, many students believed that their vocabulary was not adequate for
academic writing (52.6%). This may be due to several factors, such as a lack of exposure
to academic vocabulary or a lack of confidence in using more complex words. Other
students (30.8%) respond "sometimes", while the remainder (19.2%) indicate that they
had enough knowledge to use appropriate vocabulary in academic writing.

Chart 1: Students' perceptions of their academic vocabulary
Regarding a more detailed look at Chart 2, over 70% of the academic words can be
difficult for students to use, as they may be unfamiliar with the words or they may not
be sure how to use them in a sentence. Approximately 25.6% of the students responded
"sometimes" and only 3.8% of the respondents believe it is not difficult for them to choose
the proper phrases in academic writing.
Chart 2: Students' perception of difficulties when using academic words
Table 1: Challenges when choosing academic words for writing

Items Percentage (%)
I find it difficult to choose the right words
61.5
to use in writing
I have trouble understanding the
65.4
meaning of certain academic words
I use clichéd words 11.5
I repeat using the same academic words
41.0
in one writing paper
Others 1.3

According to Table 1, the following are the challenges in selecting academic terms
for writing. 65.4% of students responded, "I have trouble understanding the meaning of
certain academic words". Several words may have different meanings in different
academic disciplines, so it is essential to choose a word that is appropriate for the given
context. Furthermore, 61.5% of students stated that it could be challenging to find the
right word to express a concept or idea. Some academic words may be more complex or
specialized than others, so it is essential to consider the audience for the writing and
choose words that they will be able to understand. The problem "I repeat using the same
academic words in one writing paper" accounts for 41% of the total. One of the challenges
of academic writing is finding ways to use words with similar meanings without being
repetitive or boring. This can be especially difficult when students are discussing complex
concepts or ideas. In comparison, others (11.5%) pointed out that using clichéd words
and phrases can be a real challenge in an academic context. This is because academic
writing should be clear, concise, and free of any unnecessary embellishments.
Complemented words and phrases can often be considered redundant and can make an
academic text appear complex and challenging to read. 1.3% of students claimed that it
was because of other factors such as mood, level of vocabulary, and habit of using words.
Table 2: Resources helpful for the right academic words

A dictionary 73.1
A thesaurus 35.9
Online resources 73.1
Others 2.6
The sources students use to find the right academic words are depicted in Table 2.
“Online resources” is the principal source that over 70% of students used to choose
appropriate academic lexemes. 73.1% and 35.9% of students learned academic writing
through “A dictionary” and “A thesaurus” respectively. A dictionary would provide
them with the definition of words, which was essential in understanding a text. A
thesaurus was also useful for students, as it would help them find synonyms for words.
This helped expand their vocabulary and make their writing more sophisticated. Finally,
2.6% learned from other sources such as academic word lists, and academic collocation
lists.
4.1.2 Students' difficulties with word choice

The purpose of this study was to analyze the attitudes of English learners. Students find
it hard to choose words that are both accurate and relevant to their writing paper. The
right strategy to help select the right words can be challenging to find. There are several
reasons why academic writing can be complicated for students. The language can be
complex and jargon-filled, making it hard to understand the meaning of the words.
Additionally, academic writing often requires the use of specific, technical words

that can be thorny to use in one's writing. Editing academic writing can be difficult
because of the need to ensure accuracy and precision. Finally, choosing the right words
to use in a paper can be challenging, as academic writing often requires a balance between
accuracy and relevance. Therefore, we surveyed a few small multiple-choice questions to
show the challenge of the use of words following the academic style.
Chart 3: The answer to the sentence “He wasn’t ........ that he had hurt her feelings”
The most approximate lexeme is "conscious" and "aware" when it comes to

academic writing. Nearly 40% of students choose the right word “conscious”. About
more than 50% of students gave the wrong answers because they misperceived their
understanding of a word and its use was not the same. Besides, in most of the other
questions, more students choose the right academic words. It shows that students had
also tried very hard to improve their vocabulary as well as their ability to use academic
words.
Table 3: The best word that learners use when

referring to a student’s motivation for academic success
Determination 51.3
Ambition 39.7
Drive 15.4
Perseverance 28.2
Others 0
Chart 3 shows the answers about the best word that learners use when referring to a
student’s motivation for academic success like “ambition” (39.7%), “drive” (15.4%), and
“perseverance” (28.2%). However, the best word to use when referring to a student's
motivation for academic success is "determination." As explained by the dictionary, this
word implies that the student is willing to put in the hard work and effort necessary to
achieve their goals.

Table 4: The best word that learners use when

referring to a student’s academic achievements
Outstanding 52.6
Impressive 28.2
Remarkable 44.9
Exceptional 17.9
Others 1.3
“What is the best word to use when referring to a student's academic

achievements?”
There is no definitive answer to this question, as it depends on the context and the
particular student's achievements. However, some words that could be used to refer to a
student's academic achievements include "outstanding", "remarkable", "impressive", and
"exceptional". The percentage of participants choosing "outstanding" reaches the highest
with 52.6% of the total participants. Additionally, "remarkable" comes in second with
44.9% of participants. Besides, students still choose "impressive” (28.2%), "exceptional"
(17.9%), and 1.3% of participants choose other words to refer to a student’s academic
achievements respectively.
Table 5: The strategies to overcome the difficulties with word choice

Do not abbreviate in academic writing 25.6
Avoid using personal language or conversational expression 60.3
Do not use slang or avoid using idioms in academic English writing 42.3
Learn more to improve vocabulary and grammar 61.5
Refer to good writing of other students to help students learn good word
38.5
usage or good structure
Students need to master academic style, including how to use formal
51.3
words instead of using vocabulary in informal communication
Others 0
It can be seen that students are always looking for ways to improve their vocabulary,
including expanding more words and understanding how to use them, accounting for
61.5%. On the other hand, the phrase "avoid the use of personal language" up to 60.3%,
of academic writing personal language, refers to the use of first-person pronouns (I, we,
I, we) me, etc.) and second-person pronouns (you, yours, yours, etc.). This is because
academic writing is often objective and formal in tone, and using personal language can
make your writing sound informal and biased. In addition, strategies are also used such
as using formal words (51.3%), do not use slang or avoid using idioms (42.3%), referring
to good writing (38.5%), and do not abbreviate (25.6%).

Table 6: The solutions for students to improve academic writings

More practice 73.1
Feedback from others 52.6
A better understanding of the expectations 60.3
More time to revise 48.7
Clearer guidelines 34.6
Others 0
The data show that students felt confused in academic writing. Students may have
difficulty identifying the main points in a text, structuring an argument, or using
evidence to support their claims. These challenges can make academic writing a
challenge for students. Therefore, some solutions that can help students learn academic
writing more effectively include more practice, using dictionaries, reading a lot of
newspapers, and learning from other people's experiences. Through the data obtained
from table 6, the results can be found about the learners’ solution in choosing academic
words to use 73.1% of learners is more practice. Besides, feedback from others (52.6%), a
better understanding of the expectations (60.3%), more time to revise (48.7%), and clearer
guidelines (34.6%).
4.2 Findings from the interviews

4.2.1 The difficulties with word choice in academic writings
Teachers agreed that the most difficult issue for pupils in acquiring academic writing is
word choice. The teacher's responses demonstrate this. The first teacher said, “The
difficulties students often face in academic writing are choosing vocabulary and using
grammatical structures''. Moreover, the teacher considers “The difficulty when teaching
academic writing to students is that students are afraid to write, they may be very good at reading
techniques but they do not often write and if they do, they will write in free writing format, but
they do not know it yet. What is the writing form?”.
While the second teacher said, “When students learn academic writing, they often use
common language and vocabulary. When writing academically, students tend to have a word
without realizing whether the word is academic or non-academic”. This was also supported by
teacher two “The difficulty for students is that they are not aware of what is an academic word
and what is a normal word”. Among the challenges, the misuse of English words or phrases
was the strongest difficulty.
This was demonstrated by the third teacher,
“Students often shy away from writing skills because they are not used to writing and
there are 3 common difficulties that students often face. Firstly, for strange topics, students
are often confused because they do not have enough ideas to develop. The second problem
is the use of grammar. Finally, the most serious problem falls in word choice.”

The reason for the students choosing the wrong word was not higher-level
vocabulary and using google to translate word by word. As reported by the teacher,
“Students often choose the wrong words when writing academically. Firstly, it is because
academic vocabulary is at a higher level than what students learned before, and secondly,
they translate word by word. They just think in Vietnamese, then switch to that system in
English.”
The second teacher said that challenges related to choosing the wrong word were
not finding a suitable vocabulary for academic writing. As the second teacher replied,
“Students choose the wrong words when writing academically because they do not know
which words are academic and are non-academic words. For example, students use the
word "examining" which is a word in the common word form, but students do not know
that if they write an academic paper, they should use the verb "analyze", which is more
academic because students don't know, they use it wrong.”
Regarding choosing the wrong words, teacher 3 reported that,
“Students choose the wrong word when they write academically because they are not used
to writing academically, don't have a lot of writing practice, and don't know how to use
collocation correctly, so they often get into word choice errors.”
4.2.2 The solutions to overcome the difficulties

In terms of solutions, teachers have come up with different workarounds. However,
teachers generally mentioned improving word choice in the academic writing of
students, improving writing methods, and improving the awareness of the importance
of word choice in academic writing. Regarding the teacher's interview, it was found that
teachers said there were problems with word choice when students write an academic
paper. This was confirmed by the first teacher,
“To help students improve their vocabulary, the first thing I can do is to provide them with
sources, for example, I have a book called Vocabulary for IELTS, a good source for them to
learn. academic vocabulary in a certain field”.
“Teachers will suggest to students’ popular websites that provide high-level, academic
vocabulary such as 200 Common Words, 2000 Common Words, etc.”
When asked about solutions, teachers give some way to overcome the challenges,
the second teacher had three strategies,

“Teachers should provide a list of the most common academic vocabulary so that students
can review and apply that list to their writing”.
And, for students,
“Students should read as many scholarly articles as possible, pay attention to how often
the writer uses words, and then draw their own experiences.”
Besides, the first teacher suggested,
“While reading scholarly articles, students should take notes of academic words.”
Another teacher recommended,
“Teachers must provide students with many exercises, such as multiple-choice exercises,
which will help students remember academic words more easily”.
Similarly, the third teacher suggested,
“Students need to re-learn academic writing skills. When writing essays, students need to
look at the collocation dictionary and check the words to see if the words are appropriate
for the context, they are writing in.”
5. Discussion
The purpose of this study is to explore the difficulties and solutions of English-majored
students about appropriate word choice in academic writing. The findings suggest that,
while students can identify the appropriate word choice for their scholarly writing and
recognize its basic features, they do not fully understand it. Students showed a varying
degree of difficulty with the questions that affected their ability to choose the appropriate
academic word in the easy-to-difficult section of the questionnaire. This demonstrates
that academic writing may be difficult for students to grasp, utilize, revise, and recall.
These findings suggest that students did not always understand the register of a phrase
and struggled to use academic language efficiently and appropriately.
Ferris and Roberts (2001) classified mistakes as curable or untreatable, claiming
that word choice errors were untreatable due to the lack of consultation norms. Truscott
(2001), on the other hand, classified mistakes from low correctability to high
correctability, suggesting that some word choice errors may be discreetly examined and
so corrected. It is clear from this that academics' perspectives on the correctability of word
choice errors are complex and nuanced. It has been stated that students' awareness is

required for the acquisition of linguistic information including lexis or word choice
(Huang et., 2012).
According to Kao and Reynolds (2020), writing teachers utilize indirect feedback
more often than direct feedback for students' word choice mistakes. Writing professors
frequently ask students to utilize different terms without providing any explanations or
examples to test different sorts of indirect feedback. Writing teachers may also view word
choice problems as a minor hindrance to their students' writing and anticipate that
learners will be able to self-correct without assistance. Reynolds (2016) discovered that
students hated self-editing and self-correcting verb-noun alignments, indicating
unfavorable views regarding the writing teacher's proposal that they remedy difficulties.
It is essential that writing professors explicitly explain to students why developing self-
editing and reference abilities is crucial - this guarantees that the correct words are chosen
so that their intended meanings are understood.
Future research should look into how students learn to recognize and use
academic writing, and whether there is a relationship between the quality of word choice
and essay writing. Though many issues remain about lexical choices when writing and
the appropriate way to research the process, qualitative investigations explaining learner
perspectives tend to have useful implications for instructors and provide insights into the
use of words in making the classroom more effective. Additionally, writing teachers
should provide direct feedback in conjunction with meta-linguistic feedback that
explains the sort of word choice problem that has been targeted for feedback and repair.
6. Conclusion
Word choice is one of the most encountered aspects of academic writing. Evidence shows
that students who could not determine whether a word is academic or non-academic did
not know how to choose the right word in the context. Besides that, students used a
Google translate machine to search the unknown vocabulary.
In terms of solutions to overcome these challenges such as practicing writing,
reading lots of academic articles, and taking notes to improve academic vocabulary was
considered effective solution.
The findings from this study show the difficulties and give some solutions for
English-majored students, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University regarding
word choice in academic writing. Such challenges reported by the students while
learning academic writing as well as suggestions generated from the faculty were found
to become useful resources to help students improve their writing skills.
Acknowledgements
This research would not have been possible without the cooperation of several people.
First, we would like to express our deep gratitude to 78 participants for their willingness
to complete the questionnaire and to three teachers volunteering to participate in the

interviews. Second, we are grateful to many teachers of English, Department of English

Language and Culture, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho University for their
support. Last but not least, we are indebted to our family and friends, who always stood
by our side throughout our learning journey. Their encouragement and support inspired
us to complete this research.
Acknowledgement
This study is funded in part by Can Tho University, Code: THS2022-37.
Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
About the Authors

Nguyen Thi Tuong Thuy is a student at Can Tho University, Vietnam. Her research
interests include methodologies and writing.
Huynh Pham Thien Anh is a student at Can Tho University, Vietnam. Her research
interests include speaking and grammar.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan is a student at Can Tho University, Vietnam. Her research
interests include literature and writing.
Nguyen To Tuong Vy is a student at Can Tho University, Vietnam. Her research interests
include literature, writing, and cultural studies.
Nguyen Thi Viet Anh is a senior lecturer, School of Foreign Languages, Can Tho
University, Vietnam. Her research interests include methodologies, language skills, and
semantics.
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European Journal of English Language Teaching

DOI: 10.46827/ejel.v7i6.4543 Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022

DIFFICULTIES WITH WORD CHOICE IN ACADEMIC WRITING

Nguyen Thi Tuong Thuy,

Keywords: academic writing, word choice, difficulties, solutions

Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. 54

Writing is challenging to teach and learn in ESL/EFL. As mentioned by Grami (2010),

2.1 Features of academic writing

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 55

2.2 Academic writing classification

2.3 Difficulties with word choice

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 56

2.4 Methods to help students with word choice

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 57

3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews

4.1 Findings from the questionnaires

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 58

Chart 1: Students' perceptions of their academic vocabulary

Chart 2: Students' perception of difficulties when using academic words

Table 1: Challenges when choosing academic words for writing

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 59

Table 2: Resources helpful for the right academic words

4.1.2 Students' difficulties with word choice

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The most approximate lexeme is "conscious" and "aware" when it comes to

Table 3: The best word that learners use when

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 61

Table 4: The best word that learners use when

“What is the best word to use when referring to a student's academic

Table 5: The strategies to overcome the difficulties with word choice

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 62

Table 6: The solutions for students to improve academic writings

4.2 Findings from the interviews

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 63

Regarding choosing the wrong words, teacher 3 reported that,

4.2.2 The solutions to overcome the difficulties

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 64

And, for students,

Besides, the first teacher suggested,

Another teacher recommended,

Similarly, the third teacher suggested,

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 65

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 66

interviews. Second, we are grateful to many teachers of English, Department of English

Conflict of Interest Statement

About the Authors

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 67

European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 68

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European Journal of English Language Teaching - Volume 7 │ Issue 6 │ 2022 69

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